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Maintain Proficient Teacher accreditation
Meet your professional development requirements
Your professional development requirements have changed
Effective from 16 August 2024 the professional development (PD) requirements for teachers maintaining Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher accreditation have been changed.
NESA has removed the Accredited and Elective PD categories to give teachers more flexibility in completing their required 100 hours of PD.
NESA is currently re-developing eTAMS to reflect these changes. You can continue to log PD in eTAMS or offline and submit your maintenance of accreditation when due and once you complete 100 hours of PD. All PD activities already logged will count towards your required PD hours.
Find out more about these changes and watch our video for more information.
Meeting your PD requirements
To maintain your accreditation, you need to engage in a range of PD activities.
By the end of your maintenance period, you must have completed a minimum of 100 hours of PD related to the Standards at or above Proficient Teacher.
Engage in a variety of PD activities aligned to the Standards
You are responsible for identifying and planning your PD needs throughout your maintenance period. Engaging in a variety of PD activities will ensure a balanced approach towards your professional learning.
NESA has developed the NESA Professional Development Framework to help you identify types of PD activities that best suit your professional needs and context.
Priority areas
While not mandatory, priority areas can help guide your focus on effective PD in important areas of teaching and learning. Employers may choose areas of priority for their staff, but these decisions are made at a school/early childhood service and system level. Employers are responsible for the content and quality of PD for their staff where they determine a priority.
The 5 priority areas for PD are:
- delivery and assessment of NSW Curriculum/Early Years Learning Framework
- student/child mental health
- students/children with disability
- Aboriginal education and supporting Aboriginal students/children
- leadership to support the learning outcomes of students and children.
Non-school/service based teachers
Maintenance of Proficient Teacher accreditation is voluntary if you are in a non-school/service based role. You can maintain your accreditation if you are able to meet the required 100 hours of PD by the end of your maintenance period.
If you have limited opportunity to access relevant PD that is aligned to the Standards in your current role, you can consider putting your accreditation on hold by applying for a Leave of Absence or switching to Non-practising accreditation, depending on your situation.
You cannot teach in any NSW school or service as a Non-practising teacher, or while on a Leave of Absence.
Record your PD
You must retain a PD log for 12 months after the end of your maintenance period. You can keep this record in various ways, such as in your NESA online account, our PD log template, daybook or a format that best suits you. An optional template (PDF 318.07KB) for logging PD is on NESA’s website.
In your PD log you must record the following required information:
- date of PD activity
- PD activity type
- name of PD activity
- Standard(s) addressed
- duration of activity
- provider name (if applicable).
- priority area (if applicable)
PD log audit
As part of NESA’s quality assurance processes, we will conduct random audits of teachers’ PD logs after they have submitted their maintenance. If you are audited, you will need to provide your record to NESA within 28 days. Teachers who fail to provide their PD log within the required timeframe risk suspension of their accreditation. Read more details on NESA’s quality assurance processes on our website.
Failure to submit your maintenance within your timeframe
If you are due to submit your maintenance but haven't met your PD requirements, you can:
- discuss your professional development goals with your principal or service director
- develop a plan for how you can work towards meeting your PD requirements.
If you are still unable to meet your PD requirements within your timeframe, you can apply to NESA for an extension using the Application for extension of accreditation timeframe (PDF 223.05KB).
You may only apply for an extension in the final 6 months before your due date and you will need to provide evidence of the grounds for your request.
Grounds for an extension include:
- illness and misadventure
- carer responsibilities
- undertaking further study, or
- other applicable professional or individual circumstances.